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MT senior citizen sheep hunt

I'm not sure how many tags Montana gives out each year, but I'd venture to say that one per unit is a pretty good chunk.
If those old boys wanna hunt sheep so bad, perhaps they should look into the unlimited hunt their fine state offers.. In 30 years of applying, I'd think they would have had plenty of time to scout it out, and get the advantage.
Or, go pay an outfitter in Canada and hunt.

Personally I think it's a good idea! Being one of these old boys that have been applying for multiple decades, time is running out. It is not always possible for people of fixed incomes to go out of the state or country for a hunt. Believe me I've tried to figure out how to go! Entitled! I say earned the right is more like it!

I heard one time if you are a resident in Wyoming your whole. Unsuccesful on drawing a sheep tag, you automatically get one at 60 years old. Not sure if that is true or not. But I agree with Jerry, it is a good idea. When you reach 65 there is not much time left to physically handle a sheep hunt.

I don't believe that is true because one of my hunting buddies Grandpa is 68 and still trying for one. We are wyoming residents. But I think that is a great idea. Same with Moose and Bison if you want.

It's a "nice" idea, and sounds good on the surface, but I believe it has some serious problems. Here are a few of my thoughts for what they are worth.

1) To put it simply, there are not enough draw sheep tags to give every "dedicated" sheep applicant a tag in their lifetime. There just aren't, it is that simple.

2) Montana already has a bonus point preference system which squares your points. If they keep the current system in place, someone who applies their entire lifetime will already have drastically improving odds later in their lifetime. Someday, there will be some "older guys" applying their 40th year and they will have 1600 times better odds than a young guy applying his first year.

3) Each year, people have a choice where they apply. Someone who applies for their lifetime in the Missouri Breaks is going to have far less of a chance to draw than someone who chose to apply in lesser areas. They made that choice. Simply by choosing to apply for a lesser quality area, someone can dramatically increase their odds of getting drawn over a lifetime of applications. You can still have an awesome time in those "lesser" areas.

4) I have read numerous posts over the years (on various sites) of people who have applied their whole lives and they are frustrated they have not drawn a sheep tag. In my home state (Oregon for example), you would have to apply about 4 lifetimes on average to draw a tag. That means 75 out of 100 of lifetime applicants will NEVER draw a sheep tag.

5) Any tags that would be allocated for older hunters has to come out of the tags issued to other applicants, which only compounds the problem for the other applicants of not drawing until they are older.

6) The only way to give out more tags is to put more sheep on the mountain.

No offense. Especially those mentioned in the article, but I think we have so many other things to worry about besides more "entitlement" issues. And to anyone that has hunted sheep in montana, we all know the phrase shooting fish from a barrel should be shooting sheep off the mountain. Sad to say it but its true.
So my point is that it has nothing to do with age or ability, simply entitlement.

This is a great country but one of the things that drag it down is the "entitlement attitude" of many of our citizens ( and a lot of our non citizens). Lets not screw it up any more by allowing this attitude to infiltrate the hunting community. Not everyone gets to accomplish everything on their bucket list.

I am not on board with this idea either. I could see having a "senior" draw for one tag statewide every year, where you would have to meet the criteria to be in the draw, so at least one of the old geezers would get one tag every year. I pretty much totally agree with UH's points.

I see what you guys are saying and I can see your side as well. I just think if a guy has been a resident and drawing for 40 years without missing a beat and is 60+ there out to be some advantage. Not entitled, but extra help. I am far away from being one of those guys, but I can see where the "pioneers" as they are called with the Wyoming G/F license should get some consideration under some strict criteria..

I see what you guys are saying and I can see your side as well. I just think if a guy has been a resident and drawing for 40 years without missing a beat and is 60+ there out to be some advantage. Not entitled, but extra help. I am far away from being one of those guys, but I can see where the "pioneers" as they are called with the Wyoming G/F license should get some consideration under some strict criteria..

There is an advantage, as UH pointed out, up to a 1600 times better odds advantage, what more do they want? Sorry, but we all aren't gonna draw tags with 1% odds in our lifetimes. There are a lot of ways to go about getting a sheep tag, sitting around for 40 years trying to draw one with 1% odds is just one of them..